I have a 1yo beagle that i want to start hunting with. Its more to get him out and running so he stays in shape. We don't have many rabbits up here in RI but we have decent pheasant hunting. I know beagles are meant to run out on their own, but i want to try to break him of just taking off. I've got him retrieving on command. He will come when called in the house, but outside he just takes off running. We do have a dog collar that we use with my parents labs to hunt but i dont want to use it unless i have to.

He is smart as a whipped but still real defiant when he smells somthing. Do any of you guys have any suggestions so i dont have to keep him on the lead at all times.

lol, good luck with that one. any beagle i've ever been around is just like that. i dont care how well they are trained, when they smell something, you can yell till your blue in the face, and it wont make a difference.

"Augustus......by-god Woodrow, it's been quite a party ain't it....yes sir."

Hey samsquanch, are you using him for rabbits? or for pheasants? rabbits generally run a big circle and pheasants will run until the end of its cover before popping up. I have 3 beagles that i run pretty much on a weekly basis..Beagles arent a close ranging dog. In CT ive had dogs go out a mile in some cases and even more so when hunting VT,NH,upstate NY for snowshoes. A collar is KEY when training your beagle. Ive had good enough luck where my dogs generally stay within a 1/2 mile. They bark different when running a rabbit or a pheasant. Biggest thing is trashing on deer. Hes only 1 so try a long lead in a field and use your "here" command with him. Beagles are stubborn dogs but spend enough time with him and it will pay off.

i have a beagle that was just like that when he was younger but hes three now and listens much better. i wouldn't be afraid to use the collar its better to get him used to it when hes younger than older. also if your ever hunting near a road and he gets on a rabbit your not going to stop him so its nice to have the collar incase he runs toward the road. I would try putting him on a long rope and either tie it to your belt loop or holding it and letting him run as long as that reaches. when he gets used to that distance try the collar and when he surpasses the zone you want im in give him a zap and he will eventually learn what you want. your probably in for a lot of chasing and frustration but stick with it. I transitioned from fifty foot rope to collar with my beagle and it worked good. he tried to outrun the ecollor but when he realized he wasn't going to he would come back. having a beagle close is nice because if conditions are rough you can still get a shot at a rabbit on the jump and he also wont flush pheasants 100 yards away.

I picked up the dt systems z3000 and introduced it to cooter. I followed the collar training and he is doing great with it in the house. Havent ventured to the woods yet. We live near a main road so i want to make sure he is away from the road before i let him roam a little.

We raise quail up here for my buddies pointers so he is getting trained on the birds. The rabbits would be fun but we just dont have an adequet source of them up here to make a go of it. The pointers run trials down south so we have extra birds when they leave for a few months that he is gonna get to work on.

I don't upland hunt a lot but it would be nice to take the pup for a run and not worry about the yotes getting him. Training started last week and he is responding well so i will keep you guys posted.

This is my first beagle and all the horror stories i dont see. He was house broke pretty much after the first month and he doesnt make a peep unless the other dog has somthing he wants.

ive owned beagles all my life and this made me laugh....a beagle purposely being trained to hunt upland....ive had a few that run pheasant but its not something you train for...good luck with that training though...

Man you should check out my site Mississippi Beaglers, the guys in there live for there beagles.

If you want a hound to go for upland game , hunt close to you , jump birds , well I think you would be better off getting an upland bird dog. Beagles are made to hunt on there own, thats just the way they are, if they smell a bunny ..........well he will run it and forget all about birds. Not saying you cant train them for birds but how much time do you have to train out many years of breeding just for running rabbits?

Good Luck.

Honkers 2

A Dumb Ass is someone that tries something, that will not work, change nothing, and expect differnt results.

I've done it! Not quite what you're thinking of though (I dont think you can train out of them what's been bread into them).

I'm in total agreement with everyone thats posted, they hunt for themselves and will range liberally! I've found that our little hound doesnt always scare the birds enough to make them jump, cover or no cover, I'm pretty sure there have been a few coveys of quail that thought, hey we could take him why bother fly'n, but they more or less just move along the ground away from him. Then the baying starts and then the following it for what seems to be miles, my little guy doesnt retrieve though - I leave that job for the big dog. Whatever it is once its in their nose, they aint gonna stop.

I pretty much just run him on grouse now and he does a pretty good job considering he's just not bred for that kind of thing, what I've done to keep him close to the gun, is gotten one of those retractable leashes, but made for a bigger dog so it can take the abuse. I put him in a harness and run my belt through the leash handle/housing and away we go. Just make sure to get a lead that has a coated wire, uncoated and it'll likely frey once you get into the nasty stuff. You'll still tangle up at first, but a little practice and it works fairly well. I can pretty much go on auto pilot after that, once my ears are ringing and belt is tugging it's go time!